Of course there are a few limited pros to coming home this summer.  First of all I’m not paying rent.  Second I have an internship in the area that starts this week (more on that later). But the weeks leading up to this internship have been painfully long and boring.  What’s a girl to do?

Top 5 Things I Do With My Time:

1. Take a class- during May I was able to take a Maymester course from home by signing up for an online version.  Unfortunately there is a steep fee for online courses. This disappointed me after looking forward to the whole Maymester is free thing.  But it was much cheaper than it would have been and was a class I really needed to graduate.  I also learned I don’t like online courses.  Or short 4 week courses for that matter.

2.  Try to find a job- turns out it’s kinda hard to get someone to employ you when you’re leaving town in August.  I spent three straight days returning to one place for an application only to be told that, yes there was a position open, but no they couldn’t take me because I can’t stay on after August.  Having a great resume doesn’t count here, folks.

3.Rewatch every Harry Potter movie in order- okay after my May class ended I was getting really bored.  Sometimes these things happen.  On the plus side I caught a lot of small details I never saw before so I’m probably a better person now.

Most of my movie marathon was spent watching all the actors grow up on screen.

4. Unpack. Again.- One of the worst things about being a college student still living in dorms is the constant moving of everything you own.  I feel like I spend my entire life packing and unpacking. It’s especially painful knowing everything I’m unpacking has to be put back in the same box in just a few short months.

5. Read Something Not Assigned to Me-  So far this summer I have read a few books that I got really excited about. First is the Shades of London Series by Maureen Johnson.  These books follow Rory, a girl from Louisiana who begins going to school in London right around the same time she discovers she can see ghosts.  The mystery and awesome setting make these books fantastic.  I also read The Fault in Our Stars by John Green.  I tore through this book in two days. Everything about it was excellent and it’s perfect for some summer reading. (Turns out John Green also has a pretty big following.)

5 1/2: Visit my friends in Columbus- Okay, I admit it, I’ve already been back and I’ve barely even been home that long.  I just can’t resist a few days of freedom.  I’ve been taking advantage of the free time I have before my internship starts to enjoy Columbus in the summertime.

Snow foxes at the Columbus Zoo!

As this summer began I dreaded what lie ahead as I was steeped in boredom.  However as this week begins, and I become a working girl, I see this list with a little fondness.  I’m going to miss the free time.  But in the end I would have gone insane.  Time for a new adventure that no longer includes Harry Potter or ghosts from London.

Rocket science: http://www.cartoonstock.com/directory/d/distance_learning.asp

Harry Potter:http://www.impawards.com/2001/harry_potter_and_the_sorcerers_stone_ver5.html

Fault in Our Stars: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fault_in_Our_Stars

Our two weeks of staff training were completed yesterday! Tomorrow our first round of campers arrives. For the week I’ll be an assistant counselor with the Palomino cabin (teen girls), possibly an assistant riding instructor in mornings, and teaching vaulting in the afternoons!

These past few weeks I’ve had the chance to ride on my namesake horse, an Appaloosa also named “Sierra”. I’ve also finished CPR and basic first aid training, been placed in CHA (Certified Horsemanship Association) level 2B riding, passed my swim test, and made a bunch of friends :-)

I’ve learned how to ride English, shoot a bow left-handed, saddle-soap, and catch horses. I’ve ridden a horse with a group to a distant location on a hill and spent the night in a cabin far from civilization. I’ve saddled ponies and scooped manure.

I’ve cooked a meal over a campfire and played guitar with a group for the first time. I’ve made a rope, driven a horse, and started on my farmer’s tan. I’ve been certified to belay on our rock climbing wall.

We’ve had a baby goat born last week, there’s another on the way. One of our deer has a newborn fawn. There’s also two hutches of baby bunnies and a couple excepting mother cats.

I’m officially ready for summer now!

Now that I’m officially back, let me fill in the blanks over the past couple of months. After a super stressful Finals Week, I had successfully completed my freshman year at THE Ohio State University!  Immediately after my last exam, I packed my things, said my goodbyes, and flew back home to Houston.  I wanted to write during that time, but I was feeling a sense of writer’s block.  I guess you could say that I needed to take time away from everything to clear my mind.

Some time passed, I wasn’t on Twitter very often, I rarely checked my Facebook profile, and I spent most of my days just enjoying the longest summer vacation of my life!  I took the time out to really put my life into perspective.   Suddenly, this past week I decided that I had spent more than enough time kicking back and that it was time I took some action.  So, with my first official post of Summer 2013, I just want to say that it feels good to be back!

On a more serious note, yesterday I was home alone during a really bad thunderstorm, which didn’t really bother me. But then the tornado sirens began to blare near my house, and I started to get a little nervous. I’ve heard the sirens before and I’ve even seen a tornado touch down, but I had always been with someone else when they went off.

Being the foodie that I am, the first thing I did was make sure I had food in the basement in case I did have to spend a lot of time there. My parents were both stuck in Chicago, but I called to let them know I was all right (and I had no idea where we kept flashlights). After I had the food situation under control, I grabbed a blanket, my laptop, and my phone and headed to the basement. (I don’t think I will ever outgrow being scared to be alone in the basement with flickering lights).

Even though I should have probably been watching the weather on the news, I opted for ABC Family to pass the time. Because I was obeying the rules of extreme weather and staying in the basement, I had no idea that a tornado was touching down above ground. Luckily, there wasn’t serious damage, and it didn’t come near my house. The tornado warning ended shortly after it began.

This slightly scary incident made me realize that I still have a lot to learn about living on my own. One year of college has definitely taught me a lot of being independent, but I obviously have a long, long way to go.

Well, just kidding.

BUT!

I did turn 20, which means I made the exciting switch over to adult vitamins from my teen ones.  So there’s that.

In other news, moving off campus means new neighbors, which is always fun.  Like me, they are Buckeyes, so, added bonus.  Life Tip #1- Make friends with your neighbors!  Life tip #2- Bake cookies and bring them to neighbors to facilitate Life Tip #1!  Unless, of course, you have creepy neighbors or something, then watch out.

I thought for some reason that writing about my OSU life for this summer would somehow be drastically different than the regular academic term, but it’s actually much the same—class, hanging with friends that are still in town, and doing my churchy stuff.  Minus the impending frosty doom of spring semester.  Replaced with crazy thunderstorm/tornado weirdness, which is happening at this very moment here in C-bus.  However, I consider myself very adept at handling this kind of thing, since I grew up with a medley of flash floods, tornadoes, and hurricanes in Houston.  Fun fact:  A tree fell on our roof during Hurricane Ike.  Plus, we didn’t have school for a week and a half, and our district ended up not even making up the days we missed.  Without that week and a half of learning, I somehow still made it into OSU, though.  So that was a relief.

But anyways (Is anyways really not grammatically correct?  It has a nice ring to it),

I can honestly say that I am really loving summer so far–classes and GRE (test for grad school)  prep included.  Well, not the GRE prep, whatever.  I’m finishing my psychology minor this summer, so I’m taking Data Analysis in Psychology (Psych 2220) and Health Psychology (Psych 4531).  Summer term means looonnnggg classes and very condensed coursework, but I think I’ve made it through this first week okay.  In fact, the professor of my health psych class is also my psychology honors advisor, and I think it’s really neat to get to work with her in the classroom setting as well.  I love how chill campus is right now, and how peaceful it is everywhere.  I feel so free to do anything my heart desires.  By which I really mean I have spent my summer so far re-trying every kid cereal in existence.  Right now I’m stuck on Golden Grahams.  Those things are my jam right now.  Life tip #3—Go buy some Golden Grahams.  And then eat them with a friend and think about how much they are enhancing your life satisfaction.

So… yeah.  Summer is not as glamorous or busy as the regular school year, but I’m down with that.  And no matter the time of year, Ohio State never seems to disappoint…

So in summation, Golden Grahams + Ohio State = Ultimate Contentment.

Rude Awakening:  I am on my 7^th week of the Insanity workout program, and I am feeling it.  Dear body, please don’t quit on me now.  That means you, inflamed tendons.  This is my motivation song.  Naturally.

Pleasant Surprise:  I ran into my eye doctor working out while I was at the RPAC the other day.  That’s what I get for using OSU optometry services.  I swear, you would never know Ohio State is made up of tens of thousands of people.  Somehow, everyone knows everyone.

In firm friendship,

Julia Rose S.

“WIIIIIICKED!!!”

 OH man. I’ve always had an obsession with musicals. And maybe it started with High School Musical … who cares? I’ve watched it, I’ve moved on. To more … adult-like musicals. Get off my back … okay?!

But really, High School Musical may have ignited an interest for me in the combination of song and dance. I’ve traveled the musical road – through movies – from HSM to Hairspray to RENT to Chicago (which I REALLY want to see live…maybe in Chicago). And now I’ve seen one live in front of me, at a pretty close distance!

My best friend Liz has always told me how awesome “Wicked” is. I knew a couple of the songs from Glee already … whoops. And everyone else has raved and raved and raved about Wicked. So when I heard they were in Columbus, I freaked out. I decided that this was going to be my first Broadway musical, and I’m going to get there one way or another.

And thus I did. And I watched the entire show with my eyes wide and my jaw dropped. Not only was I astounded by the beauty of the Ohio Theater (it’s pretty incredible if you have not been inside there), but the production of the show, the voices of the actors, the dancing, the songs, EVERYTHING was so captivating I think I forgot to breathe.

Once the show was over, I even got to meet a few of the cast members, including the actress who played Elphaba! I went as part of the Ohio State Alumni Association (the person I went with was an alumni) and our group had the privilege of having a talkback with them! Here were the parts that surprised me most:

- The Wicked Production that is traveling with this company is a $14 million production out of New York City.
- They travel all over the country, including Columbus, OH, with FOURTEEN semi trucks for their production. I worked on America’s Got Talent for a week and they only had FIVE semi trucks for their production in Chicago. Wicked has FOURTEEN. Incredible.
- In one of those 14 semi trucks, the company carries their own stage, including the FLOOR. So the stage floor is exactly the same at each venue. I looked up at the stage and it’s about a 10″ thick and has speakers in it!
- Every single cast and crew member has a mic. That’s about 32 mics total! AND, there are only TWO sound mixers that have to keep up with which mics to turn on and off when and for how long. For example, during the duets when two characters are extremely close to one other, they have to turn off one of the mics so that there isn’t screeching feedback coming through!
- And lastly, it only takes about 7 minutes to turn Elphaba green. SEVEN minutes. So when her standby is watching backstage and … well … “standing by” … if she needs to be completely green, they can do it QUICK. And you won’t even notice the difference in the two. BUT, it takes about an hour and a half to get it off!

I learned a lot of things about musical productions that day. The most important one: if you have not seen a broadway musical – LIVE, not Hairspray with Jon Travolta – then you need to immediately. Even if you don’t think you’ll like it, you HAVE to do it … just for the experience. :)

Photo Cred:

http://www.letsplayballtickets.com/content/uploaded/MISC/Wicked.jpg

I am no longer a teenager as I hit the big 2-0 this week.  I know, this really isn’t that old.  I have a late birthday and tend to always be the baby of the group so most of my friends see twenty as old news.  Plus, as everyone reminds me, it’s one step closer to 21.

But what if 21 is the last birthday that’s really allowed to be fun? I don’t really see myself throwing a huge party when I turn 27, for example.  And what if I’m supposed to have it all figured out by now? Twenty is adult. I should know things by now. I should be responsible and independent.  Looks like I have a few days to figure that all out.

I think my twenties are going to just be a grown up version of all of the problems I had as a teenager.  At sixteen I was asking who am I, what is my place in this world? At 22 when I leave OSU with a degree it will be who am I, and how can I use this piece of paper to pay the rent that’s due?

I’m a little bit afraid of being an adult, if you haven’t figured that out yet.  It sounds very clichéd, but I really do feel like freshman year of high school was last week.  Newsflash: it was almost six years ago. Slow down world.

Plus there’s all the pressure of my twenties as an exciting decade.  I’m pretty sure that, or at least from what I’ve garnered from movies and television, my twenties are supposed to be brilliant.  I don’t feel as if I’ve properly prepared.

Really though, I can’t make time slow down.  I’m going to turn 20 this week whether I want to or not.  So I guess it’s time to embrace it.  There’s gotta be some perks.  When I tell someone I’m 20 they will probably take me pretty seriously.  And I mean I’m still in college.  I will wait until I’m 25 to freak out (or maybe 30).

In honor of my birth, and to add some light heartedness to this blog post, here’s a list of twenty things that, like me, are now two decades old (or will be by the end of the year):

1. One of my favorite movies, Dazed and Confused.
2. NAFTA
3. Jurassic Park, Mrs. Doubtfire, and Schindler’s List
4. Nirvana’s In Utero
5. The Pentium processor
6. Multiple members of One Direction
7. Martin Luther King Jr. Day
8. The beginning of the Clinton presidency
9. The X-Files
10. Boy Meets World
11. I Will Always Love You by Whitney Houston hitting the top of the charts
12. Waco, TX
13. The Holocaust Museum
14. The last broadcast of Cheers
15. The Indians’ last game at Cleveland Stadium
16. Nelson Mandela’s Nobel Peace Prize
17. The anniversary of the death of River Phoenix, Dizzy Gillespie, Frank Zappa, Audrey Hepburn, Thurgood Marshall, and William Golding
18. World Trade Center bombings
19. The Sandlot and Groundhog Day
20. Kids who went to kindergarten in 1998

My first year at OSU, I was spoiled living in the dorms. Food was two blocks away and I hardly washed dishes.

Now, I live in an apartment and I have to buy trash bags and groceries.

Oh, and I have to COOK for myself…

At first, I didn’t think it’d be hard. But after a month of trial-and-error learning, I think I’ve found a happy medium.

Here are some quick tips about living on your own, especially about feeding yourself on a budget.

As a Nutrition major, I’m pretty concerned with eating healthy. It was easy to do so at home since my mom cooks well, but on my own, temptations lurk everywhere.

In the morning, I suggest making a green smoothie. Blenders are relatively cheap ($20-$30).

I make a green smoothie so I can hide vegetables without having to eat 10 billion salads a day. I dump 1 handful of spinach, 3 strawberries,  1/2 banana, and 2 ice cubes and blend it all. It looks sort of nasty, but you can’t taste the spinach at all. It tastes just like a strawberry-banana smoothie.

Another thing I discovered was that eggs are a really great, cheap healthy source of nutrition. You can make a fried egg and toast, toss an egg onto pasta, or make a really good omelet with leftover vegetables.

All in all, living off-campus is definitely a growing and learning experience. But now, cooking for myself no longer scares me. I time manage even better than I did living on-campus, and I get really good exercise hiking 1 mile each way to the RPAC and to my lab!

Camp Hope is for families that have been bereaved of a loved one within the past year. Its a time of healing, restoration, and saying goodbye. One of the final activities was horse painting. Each family was given a horse to fingerpaint as a memorial to their loved one. At the end of the day, they watched their horses run away and join the herd in the field.

Since I was working in the stables, I helped turn the horses free. Some of the things written on them broke my heart. “I’m so sorry”, “I miss you”, and “please come back” were common sayings. Others were more personalized with sports team logos and random doodles.

I was glad to get the opportunity to help the families of Camp Hope, and pray that they will find healing and peace in their goodbyes.

Dr. Gee is a leader to be reckoned with, and I really do mean that.  He worked so hard for this institution because he believed in it, and that makes me believe in it too.  I really was not quite sold on OSU when I decided to attend, but seeing the passion which is possessed by every individual student from every background and of every personality imaginable was the most uplifting and inspiring thing and Dr. Gee had such a crucial role in the attitude of our student population.

I will miss seeing him around campus in my remaning years at OSU but, of course, hope he will come back to visit from time to time!

Those of you from Cleveland should know he will be at the West Side Market next Friday, June 14th, at 8am, and I’ll be there to thank him for his service to an institution that has already had such a great impact on my life.

I hope everyone is having a good summer, I’ll be posting again soon to complain about my job! Just kidding but not really.